Avro 504 - $3.50

First flown on 18 September 1913 and powered by an 80 hp Gnome rotary engine, the Avro 504 was a development of the earlier Avro 500, designed for training and private flying. It was a two-bay biplane of all-wooden construction, with a square-section fuselage. Used for many purposes-Trainer, Scout, and even as a WWI Bomber!

WWI Avro 504 British Scout and Trainer

One of the most overlooked and remarkable aircraft of all time is the Avro 503K which first flew at Brooklands July 1913. In a production life spanning well over a decade, some 10,000 504's were built. Some were even still in service at the outbreak of the Second World War!

One of the most famous biplane trainers, the Avro 504 first appeared in 1913 and in the opening stages of World War I operated in bombing and reconnaissance roles with the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. However, from 1915 the Awe was assigned the training task for which this aircraft was ideally suited: its docile handling quality endeared it to all who flew it. The main variants were the 504J, 504K, and the postwar 504N. Production exceeded 8600...

What people say...

One of the most famous biplane trainers, the Avro
504 first appeared in 1913 and in the opening stages of World
War I operated in bombing and reconnaissance roles with the Royal
Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. However, from 1915
the Awe was assigned the training task for which this aircraft
was ideally suited: its docile handling quality endeared it to
all who flew it. The main variants were the 504J, 504K, and the
postwar 504N. Production exceeded 8600.

Alliot Vernon Roe, a onetime merchant-marine engineer,
first studied flight by watching sea birds on the wing and then
building model gliders to imitate them. In 1913, Roe went
on to produce the Avro 504, a stagger-winged biplane that became
enormously popular as a military trainer. Turned out by the thousands,
the 504 was one of the most widely sold-and longest lived-machines
ever built: later models were still flying in the early 1930s.

During its successful career, the Avro 504 saw duty as a day
and night fighter, a bomber, and a reconnaissance plane. Being
one of the most famous planes of WWI, it could fly at more than
80 mph and set a new altitude record of 15,000ft.

The first production models were already in service with the
Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS)
when the war started. The RNAS used it as a reconnaissance plane,
while the RNAS used it as a light bomber. An Avro 504 was the
first British plane shot down in action, on August 22, 1914.
The German Zeppelin threat was met by two versions, the 504C
and the 504D where the observer's cockpit was eliminated to make
room for another fuel tank.

When the 504 became obsolete as a fighting plane, production
continued to the 504J which was a trainer being used at the RFC
flying schools. Prince Albert, the future King George VI, learned
to fly in a 504. Lastly, the 504K was developed with a universal
engine mount to accommodate the various engines then being produced.

The 504K was later adapted for combat. The two seater trainer
was turned into a single-seater night fighter for home defense
service against Zeppelin raids.

The forward cockpit was covered over, and the plane was armed
with a Lewis machine-gun on the upper wing. This version of the
504K equipped six home defense squadrons in the northern section
of London in 1918. It was still in use in five units at the end
of the war.

The Royal Naval Air service sent a force of aircraft to operate
along the Belgian coast shortly after the outbreak of the war,
and they began a series of raids and eventually succeeding in
destroying a Zeppelin, ZIX, in her shed at Dusseldorf.

The virtue of the Avro 504 as a trainer lay in the fact that
it had good agility and performance and entirely without vices
in the air.

Construction Tips: This little 504K is the
only Fiddlers Green model to sport a landing skid. It should
have a strip of card stock glued between top and bottom surfaces
for added strength. We've drawn several views of the landing
gear arrangement with a close-up of the paper clip 'Bungee Struts'.
Spend a little extra effort on this feature to make your model
really special.

The seats and instrument panels work in nicely. It's not
difficult to sculpt, out of clay, a couple little aviators (or
Aviatrixii) for the cockpits.

The rotary 9 cyl Le Rhône engine is built then installed
spinningly with a small nail to the firewall. The prop or plastic
disk gets glued to the head of the nail to turn along with the
engine. It's important to score all the stringer lines along
the fuselage to capture the covered fabric effect of the era.

AVRO 504K (NIGHT-FIGHTER)

The Avro 504 two-seater biplane made the first organized bombing raid in history,
on November 21st, 19l4. when three R.N.A.S. machines. No's. 873, 874 and 875.
attacked the airship sheds at Fried richshafen. The 504 later became an outstandingly
successful trainer and was manufactured in large numbers.

It is less e11
known that three single-seater fighter versions of the 504 were
constructed-one of which equipped operational squadrons as late
as 1918.

The Avro 504C was built for the R.N.A.S. for anti Zeppelin and king-distance
reconnaissance duties. Based very closely on the two-seater 504B naval trainer,
it had an 80 h.p. Gn6me rotary engine enclosed in a swollen-sided cowling. The
standard 504 wings had two main spars and ribs of spruce, and were wire-braced
and fabric-covered. Long-span ailerons were fitted and there were semi-circular
cut-outs in the lower wing-roots. The fuselage had ash longerons and stringers
braced by wire, and was fabric covered except for plywood decking round the
cockpit, which was cut below the level of the top longerons.

The space occupied
by the front cockpit on the 504B was faired over and carried a large petrol
tank with a fuel capacity for eight hours' flying. The usual Avro undercarriage
with faired-in rubber shock-absorbers and central wooden skid was fitted; the
tail-skid was of the pylon variety. The 504C had the me plain rudder and long
fin as the 504B~ all the later naval Avro's could be distinguished by their vertical
tail surfaces-those of the R.F.C. having the original comma-shaped balanced
rudder. The anti-airship 504C carried a Lewis gun fixed to fire upwards through
a center-section cutout at an angle of 45 degrees. About eighty 504Cs manufactured.

A very similar single-seater, the 504D, was built for the R.F.C.
Designed for precisely the same duties, it was, however, based
at the 504A, and had short-span ailerons and a comma-duped rudder.
The engine was the usual 80 h.p. Gn6me rotary. Six of this type
were built.

When Major Smith-Barry founded the School of Special Flying
at Gosport in August 1917 with the object oft raining flying instructors,
he chose the 100 hp. Gn6me Monosoupape Avro 5041 as the best available
type for the purpose. Consequently the 5041 was selected as the
standard R.F.C. trainer and was built in large numbers. A shortage
of the necessary Mono-Gnome engines led to the development at
Gosport of the 504K, a model with a universal engine mounting
capable of taking any of the available rotaries. The old bulbous
enclosed cowling was replaced by a larger open-fronted type. The
K supplanted the J as the standard trainer and was eventually
used all over the world

Early in 1918 a single-seater version of the K, powered with the 110 h.p. Lc
Rhone rotary, was supplied to five Home defense squadrons based on the north
side of London. The pilot sat in what was normally the rear cockpit, the front
seat being covered in. Some of these K's had a vee-type undercarriage. A Lewis
gun was carried on a Foster mounting above the center section. The central gravity
tank being moved to port to accommodate it. During the year the type was supplied
to other H.D. units outside the London area.

Avro 504A built by modeler Dave Caldwell (one of his first! models) That's a
fuel tank on the upper wing. It doesn't get much better than this.